NCAA Announces 2009 Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament Field

INDIANAPOLIS --- The NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Committee announced today the 64-team field for the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship. Thirty-one conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 33 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket.

The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and placed within four regions. The teams tabbed as the top four seeds were No. 1 Pennsylvania State University; No. 2 University of Texas at Austin; No. 3 Florida State University; and No. 4 Stanford University.

The established bracketing principles of non-conference first- and second-round matchups were followed and team pairings were determined by geographical proximity.

The Pacific-10 Conference led all conferences with eight teams selected. The Big Ten Conference and the Big 12 Conference garnered six teams each in the field while the Atlantic Coast Conference has five teams in the tournament. Two teams, Penn State and Stanford have earned bids to all 29 championships. Five teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: U.S. Military Academy, Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Niagara University, University of Northern Colorado and Texas Christian University.

In the 28-year history of the championship, 10 schools have been crowned champion, nine of which are in this year's bracket, including two-time defending champion Penn State.

Additional past winners making the field are Stanford (1992, 94, 96, 97, 2001, 04), University of Hawaii, Manoa (1982, 83, 87), Long Beach State University (1989, 93, 98), University of California, Los Angeles (1984, 90, 91), University of Nebraska, Lincoln (1995, 2000, and 06), University of Southern California (1981, 2002, 03), Penn State (1999, 2007), Texas (1988) and University of Washington (2005).

First- and second-round matches will be played at 16 campus sites. A list of the first-round match-ups follows.

Teams winning both matches will move on to regional play December 11 and 12. The pre-determined regional sites are Stanford, California; Gainesville, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Omaha, Nebraska. The regional winners will advance to the semifinals and final hosted by University of South Florida and Tampa Bay Sports Commission at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, on December 17 and 19.